Life in my kitchen

They say you have either a sweet tooth or a salty one – I have a warm biscuit with butter tooth. I’d choose a freshly baked biscuit over most anything else – it knocks a bag of chips out of the park, and can hold its own against anything chocolate.

I’ve been making a lot of these cream biscuits lately – so easy to stir together, and no cutting in of butter. It’s no secret that such a biscuit can be called into service for any number of occasions.

These are Stan Lee‘s leftovers. (Creator of Spider-Man! The Hulk! X-Men! The Fantastic Four! Iron Man! Thor! All the important people in W’s life.) When I was cooking for the sci-fi celebs at Calgary Expo, a security guy came in and asked for “an egg salad sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off, and a C-Plus for Stan Lee.”

I asked if he thought I was a restaurant. You know, as if I was his mom. I didn’t have egg salad, nor C-Pluses, but on Sunday I made sure I mixed up a batch. There were leftovers, and when I got home I piled some onto a biscuit. It was a surprisingly good combo. (I can’t offer up a recipe for the egg salad – I peeled a few hard-boiled eggs and mashed them with a blop of mayo, minced celery and Italian parsley, a dab of grainy mustard and some salt and pepper. How does one make egg salad for Spider Man’s dad, anyway?)

A coffee shop opened up last month in my neighbourhood. One morning, in there with a friend for lattes, I met the owner, who professed to not know as much as he’d like to about food. I showed him how to make these biscuits, and now, having never baked a thing in his life, he turns out batches of fresh blueberry biscuits in the morning, and cheese biscuits some lunchtimes to serve with thickly sliced roasted ham. There are few better sandwiches than this – especially when a handful of aged white cheddar is tossed into the dry ingredients before you stir in the cream.

Or you could roll each cut-out biscuit out and stuff it with stuff. Last week I stuffed mine with scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon and bits of Gouda and havarti, and we all ate them for breakfast, and the boys brought the rest for lunch, and with some hot coffee, all was right with the world.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. If you like, add a handful of grated sharp cheese, some fresh or frozen berries, chocolate chunks or other additions. Add the cream and stir just until the dough comes together. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough a few times, then pat into a circle about an inch thick.

Cut into wedges and transfer onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; if you like, brush the tops with milk or extra cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm.

I must try these. We’re a big biscuit eating family, and I’ve learned to make them well, but these with no cutting in of butter sound super simple to make, and they look fantastic!! Can’t wait to test them. Thanks Julie!

Hi Julie
Love your blog! I have been obsessively trying to figure out how to get White Lily flour here in Calgary. I was wondering if you have had any experience with it for your lovely biscuits and if you have any opinion if it’s worth my efforts. Seems like the opinion out there is that it is suppose to make the best biscuits…

I second the thought to give us a photo of what the stuffed biscuits look like. I’m imagining a big ball of biscuit but somehow that doesn’t seem right. I usually just stuff them after baking. Either way I’m sure they are divine.

Geez, sorry guys – I meant to add a link to my post over at Family Kitchen that has a whole bunch of photos of the entire process! This is what happens when you try to post at almost midnight!! The link is added now!

evil, good, but evil…cream biscuits, doughnuts, cheesecake and perogies all in a row. I made currant scones for an office function on friday – huge success (more popular that the lemon tarts, creme puffs, and lemon poppyseed bundt cake). The butter and homemade strawberry jam helped too.

I hope you have acres of chard, kale, onions and carrots planned for the south 40 – to balance out the treats/indulgences. ’tis the season. I’m planting small 1m x 1m themed raised bed gardens inspired by One Magic Square by Lolo Holbein. So far a Garlic Plot (planted last fall- all 48 up), a Wok Plot for stirfries, the start of an anti-cancer veg plot, and the beginnings of a bed of antioxidant/omega-3 greens. A curry plot or pasta plot might be fun too. Maybe a baker’s plot?

These look so good! And no butter, even! I wonder if I could sub in yogurt for the cream, but that might be odd….maybe or maybe not! Anyway, that ham biscuit looks amazing and now I’m jonesing for strawberry shortcakes!!

I made these this morning since I was tired of grabbing breakfast sandwhiches out, and wow they are good Even brought a couple for the girls at work. Made some with gouda, and some with cheddar.

I’m with Kris though, why the different amounts for the flour? I found with using a full 3 cups that the dough was very dry and hard to work with. Mostly it just crumbled appart so I ended up adding a tiny bit more cream to compensate.

1 cup of cream was not enough for 3 cups of flour. The dough was far too dry and crumbly…it did not come together at all.
I ended up adding almost 2 cups of cream before my dough was workable. I also had to adjust the amount of salt. Thanks I don’t think I’ll try this again. But your pictures of the biscuit looks great, it just didn’t work out for me.

You Know, my Grammy Stewart from Malagash, N,S, made biscuits and my Mom made biscuits (we grew up in Halifax) and now I make biscuits. I have tried this recipe of yours before and it’s great!! Even though I am sensitive to wheat and dairy it is worth taking some extra enzymes to eat these. Now that I’ve seen this recipe tonight, I am not going to be able to rest until I make them.. Cheers

Thanks for yet another easy yet delish idea… you know Julie, I often pin your recipes to my board on Pinterest and every time I do I get many people re-pinning and liking the pin. Yours are always winners! My family thinks so too Oh and thanks for the heads up about the new coffee/wine shop in Inglewood… just down the street from me YAY!

[…] and sometimes renowned! Definitely motivated and inspired…. just like I am now… to make Julie’s cream scones. No butter. No muss. No fuss. Simple delicious decadence. CIN is a community of sharing the tricks […]